


What the Body Might Guess

by pollitt



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4788338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollitt/pseuds/pollitt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Proteus smiles, moving his hand from Victor’s throat to his cheek. “Close your eyes, Victor. I shall show you.”</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	What the Body Might Guess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hypertwink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypertwink/gifts).



> who asked for Penny Dreadful. Proteus lives 
> 
> **Note** : This diverges from the last moments of episode 1.02.

“Hello. Father.” a voice says from the shadows. Victor’s heart feels as though it ceased beating, as though a thick coil had wrapped around his rib cage and pulled tight.  
  
He can hear his voice say “no,” as his hands reach for Proteus. He steps in front of the unquestioning man just as deathly pale hands reach forward and clutch at open air.  
  
\---  
  
_You abandoned me. Father. Creator. Devil._  
  
The words hang heavy in the thick air of the laboratory long after Caliban has left. So engrossed in his thoughts, Victor starts when he feels a hand on his shoulder. Were he a stronger man, he would have lashed out, instead he turns, ready for another demon from his past to haunt him.  
  
Instead, he sees Proteus’s open, curious face.  
  
“Victor. Are you okay?” Proteus asks, looking at his hand, still raised where it had touched Victor’s shoulder.  
  
“Yes,” Victor assures, willing his heart to slow. He runs his hand over his face and thinks longingly of the vial of morphine that waits in his bag. “Yes, I am quite fine. Just a little . . . surprised.”  
  
“Who was that man, Victor?” Proteus looks at his hands, he moves to feel the back of his head and the sutures there. Victor feels the heat of something -- shame? dread? -- as he watches the questions form of Proteus’s face. The other man no doubt recognizing the similarities between himself and Caliban.  
  
Before Victor can begin, Proteus’s eyes meet his and his words turn to dust in his throat.  
  
“Who was I, Victor?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Victor confesses. And it’s true. The man Proteus had been didn’t matter -- his name, his profession, who he had been in his life and who he had loved. None of that mattered. All that mattered was that he had been complete and his body had been presented to Victor within hours of death. “I didn’t --”  
  
Proteus nods, understanding awash on his face.  
  
Shame, that familiar companion, causes Victor’s gaze to drop down to his own hands.  
  
He can hear Proteus’s footsteps, sees when the man’s shoes come into sight so that they could be face-to-face. But he cannot bring himself to look up. The touch of Proteus’s fingertip on his damp cheek is as unexpected as it had been only days before.  
  
“Robert.” Proteus’s thumb presses under Victor’s chin, his fingertips touching Victor’s throat as he urges Victor’s face upward. “That was my name.”  
  
“Is that what you want me to call you?” Victor asks, feeling the slide of Proteus’s thumb across his Adam’s apple. He knows that with one squeeze Proteus could end his life. He closes his eyes and waits for that final movement, for the sound of his bones breaking, for his last gasp.  
  
“No.”  
  
Victor’s eyes open and he sees the most unexpected sight as Proteus leans down and presses his lips to Victor’s. Although scientifically impossible -- it feels electric. “I don’t," Victor starts to say, but he finds he doesn’t know where to begin.  
  
Proteus smiles, moving his hand from Victor’s throat to his cheek. “Close your eyes, Victor. I shall show you.”


End file.
